Story Name: Sparkle! Sparkle! Love
Chapter 1: Winter Fantasy
Written by: Purple pin
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei
Translations: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated at the end of the chapter
" " indicates speech
'..' indicates thought
It was New Years Eve, and this evening a spectacular ball was being held in the Uchiha Manor. Buzz and excitement filled the air, as this was the high society event of the year, where the rich and powerful of Japan rubbed shoulders with each other.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome! I am pleased to announce the start of our Ball." the host, a well-known showbiz personality, announced into the microphone.
This year's theme for the ball is Russian Winter Fantasy, and the magnificent dance hall was decorated in the grandeur of the Tsar's summer palaces. Chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, light reflecting off the polished crystals as if taken directly from a fairy tale. A roaring fire burned in the stone furnace shaped like a lion's mouth, smell of deep forest pine filled the room. The room was decorated with the snowdrops, flowers that bloom in March, giving out its sweet fragrance that is reminiscent of the Bohemian Mountainside. Catering was done by girls dressed as angels, with white wings who went around the room with delicious foods to entice any appetite.
A live orchestra played Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker in the background, while everyone sought out their intended for the first dance. The New Year's Eve ball was often the place to meet other young persons from similar backgrounds. As such girls of marriageable age often take great effort in dressing up to the best. This evening, ladies were dressed in velvet and silk ball gowns fashionable in the Royal Russian court during the 17th and 18th centuries. Carried ostrich feather fans to cover their faces, and wore lace gloves. Some, with aristocratic lineage wore their heirloom tiaras to fit the Tsarina look. Some girls attended this event with fluttering hearts in the hopes of capturing the heart of one - Uchiha Sasuke.
Almost every girl cast their gaze excitedly towards a dashing young man with pale skin, dark obsidian eyes and bangs adorning his face. Unluckily for them, he was looking anything but excited to be there of all places.
Sasuke was twenty one, and second-born of the Uchiha house. Tonight, he was dressed in a crisp and stylish Cossack* uniform. The costume consisted of a red coat which he wore just covering his shoulders, a white soldier's shirt that opened low to reveal his pale and well toned chest, and black leather pants. He carried a Shashka* on his belt, wore white gloves and knee-length riding boots. He stood out as an extremely handsome man, at 180cm tall, his graceful movements immediately revealed the Uchihas aristocratic lineage. Eyes that were two deep bottomless pools, that seems that see into your soul. Dubbed the Dark Prince by popular Media, Sasuke Uchiha easily stole hearts, and broke even more. Moving from one infatuation to another, giving him a notorious playboy reputation.
"Young man, your first dance is to be with Ms Haruno Sakura." Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father and head of the Uchiha clan ordered.
"hn." Sasuke was failing to see why they even tried to set him up with the pink head, she was not his type. Showing no trace of his discontent, however, he started walking towards her. Then moving away from Fugaku he murmured something to Sai, his male bodyguard, who then nodded to indicate he had understood.
"Ms Haruno," Sasuke walked up to a young woman with bubble-gum pink hair and green eyes, "may I have the pleasure of your first dance?" He went up to her, offering his right arm.
"Yes! I'd love to!" She almost shouted, winning her some looks from others beside her, in fact she was looking like she'd just won the lottery. Then remembering the composure required for a lady of her birth, she hid her inner self which was screaming 'shanaro! Sasuke is mine.' Latching onto Sasuke's arm, She looked disdainfully around the dance hall with her prince, as all the girls were glaring daggers at her. They arrived onto the dance floor, and quickly Sasuke took his arm away, Sakura was disappointed their contact only lasted minutes.
Suddenly the lights went out, and the whole room was plunged into darkness. "What happened?" anxious voices broke out from the crowds, luckily only a few seconds lapsed and everything was back to normal.
The host cleared his throat and said "Apologies, a little wrinkle with the lighting, but all is in order now. Ladies and gentleman, the night is young, and if you will, please get ready for our first waltz - the Blue Danube." A hush fell across the room, as dancers prepared their starting poses. Boys held their partners by the waist, as girls rested their gloved hands on their partner's shoulder. Then the orchestra started playing beautiful and familiar the opening to the Waltz. Under the light of crystal Chandeliers like a thousand stars, the couples started dancing.
When they started dancing Sakura noticed that something seemed off, Sasuke was wearing a mask, this person in front of her was an impostor. Her true self broke out,"Who the hell are you!? Where's Sasuke kun? Answer me, dumbass!" Sakura said in an angry whisper to fake 'Sasuke'.
"I'm Sasuke, Ms Haruno." Sai replied, this was not the first time he had to stand in for his young master, who had too much unwanted female attention. Unfortunately, he was always the one copping it all from those jealous girls. Nobody except Sakura noticed, because from a distance Sai closely resembled Sasuke in style and height. Apparently, acting on his master's orders, he staged the short circuit in the lighting, and then swapped with Sasuke in the moments of darkness.
"You're no Sasuke kun, you're Sai - his body guard, how dare you steal my Sasuke! I'm going to tell my father about this."
Sai sweat dropped, 'more like him escaping...than me stealing him away.' He thought to himself.
The real Sasuke made his escape outside of the hall and the much dreaded first dance, he was no one's puppet. Taking his red coat off his shoulders, he flung it to one of the wooden benches in the French garden and took a deep breath. He couldn't wait for this night to be over, for some proper wild partying when he flies to Amsterdam's red light district.
Suddenly, someone cursed loudly "Shit, this hurts like hell!"
Sasuke cast his eyes to that voice, and saw a golden halo of hair. It belonged to someone was sitting on the edge of the white marble fountain. No, an angel was sitting there.
It was literally an angel with white feathery wings and long blond hair.
"Damn these high heels to hell, what do girls think of wearing them. Ow! Ow! Ow!" he cussed, while bent over, taking off a shoe. Sasuke noted that for some reason the voice sounded roughly like a boy's.
The organisers had paid for girls to dress up as angels to help with the catering in the dance hall, adding to the Russian Winter Fantasy theme. Apparently one of these angels weren't doing their job, and was sitting outside on their lazy ass.
'This could be fun,' Sasuke thought to himself, a little evilly.
"Oi! Who's there, shouldn't you be inside working."
The blond head shot up in fright. Wide ocean blue eyes looked up at onyx ones, full of surprise. Three whisker-like marks on either side of the face, and ruby red lips currently formed in an "o" shape.
For some odd reason, at that moment the Uchiha felt his heart quicken in his chest, like a rapidly beating drums.
"I...I... I'm sorry... I'll get back there right away," The blond stuttered "please don't tell anyone."
"Your name?" The raven demanded.
"My...my name? Uh, uh, that that is, that'd be Uzuma...I mean Umi..Umino Naruko." The angel then started scratching the back of their head, looking flustered.
Sasuke watched with one of his eyebrows elegantly raised, 'I've seen this face before, whaat's with this angel.' He thought to himself, he was curious, this face reminded him very strongly of someone somewhere in the lost corner of his memory...someone important... he thought, His interest was piqued.
"Well Naruko," He said with a devilishly charming smirk "I won't tell anyone, but on one condition. That you go on a date with me. What do you say?"
"WHAAAAT!?" the blond could hardly believe he has just been asked, no rather, threatened into a date.
Translation
*Cossack - a member of a people of Ukraine and southern Russia, noted for their horsemanship and military skill.
* Shashka - The Shashka is a special kind of sabre; a very sharp, single-edged, single-handed, and guardless sword. In appearance, the shashka was midway between a full sabre and a straight sword. It had a slightly curved blade, and could be effective for both slashing and thrusting.
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I rewrote some parts of it because I was working on it fairly late last night and I made a few mistakes. This version is hopefully better. There's a few mysteries waiting to be solved, which I will write about in the next chapters.
review please, good? bad? didn't like? all comments welcome :-).